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City and county outline opioid-settlement spending plan; dashboard and APS IGA among top allocations
Summary
Health, Housing and Homelessness acting director and county officials presented a strategic plan for opioid settlement funds, including capacity-building grants, a $9.6 million IGA with Albuquerque Public Schools for Crossroads programming, and a public dashboard the administration said would be launched before year-end.
Acting Director Ellen Bridal and Bernalillo County representatives presented a coordinated plan the city and county have used to allocate opioid settlement funds and described near-term procurements and performance reporting.
Bridal said the City had received roughly $32.5 million from the opioid settlement as of the prior Friday and that about $28 million of that had been allocated under the plan, leaving roughly $4.5 million unallocated. County figures presented by a county representative showed the county had received roughly $25 million over the past five years and has a smaller annual average projected through 2038.
The strategic plan the city and county adopted was developed with technical assistance from a Bloomberg Foundation consultant team. Bridal and county staff stressed that the settlement money is a one-time investment and that they intend to maximize system-level benefits without committing to unsustainable, recurring operations that cannot be funded after the settlement payments taper.
Major public items discussed: - Capacity-building RFP targeted to small and medium providers: 21 proposals were submitted and reviews were near completion. - Albuquerque Public Schools intergovernmental agreement: $9.6 million from city and county over three years to expand the Crossroads program into middle schools and track performance measures including parent involvement and clinical outcomes. - Infrastructure and capital solicitations: An initial $10 million solicitation by the city and a separate $10 million solicitation by the county were planned to create treatment and recovery infrastructure; the county planned to open its solicitation on Oct. 12. - Dashboard and public reporting: John Delanco, a data analyst on the county side, said a public dashboard was scheduled for an initial launch before the end of the year with budget allocations, expenditures and, in a later phase, contract-level accountability measures and performance reporting.
Councilors pressed for specifics. Councilor Rogers asked whether APS would pay its share of the dashboard costs; staff said that obligation is included in the APS IGA and that APS had agreed to contribute. Councilor Rogers and others also asked how the city would prioritize people with opioid use disorder for housing and vouchers; staff said they were structuring housing and recovery supports to address the needs of people with substance use disorder while building partnerships across agencies.
Action taken: Separately, the council approved a related appropriation (R180) to expand outreach and navigation services for people with substance use disorder. The motion passed unanimously. Staff described early results from a pilot staffed by Albuquerque Community Safety (ACS): with two navigators the pilot served 80 individuals over six months; 62 of those individuals had been placed into housing and 84% of those placements were sustained at the six-month check.
Bridal and county staff emphasized the need for transparency. ‘‘We’re going to be launching the dashboard... before the end of this year,’’ Delanco said. The administration said it would provide the council and the public regular financial and performance updates.
